Open Your Eyes
by FateTragedyDestiny
Summary: When tradgey hits, will Lucas keep it together? Will Peyton even pull through? Lucas' secret breaks the people he loves most apart... Set on the lyrics of the song 'Open Your Eyes' by Snow Patrol. Lucas and Peyton fic.
1. Chapter 1

Open Your Eyes

Chapter 1 – Lost

_A/N: LP story based on the song 'Open Your Eyes' by Snow Patrol_

**All this feels strange and untrue**

**And I won't miss a minute without you**

**My bones ache, my skin feels cold**

**And I'm getting so tired and old**

She walked in to see the heartbreaking sight of a distant lover, whether a lover of a friend, or a lover that you wished to hold in your arms again. _Lost _that's how she would describe it.

Being lost is that teddy which fell down the side of your bed when you were seven and you found when you were fifteen, covered in dust, cold and alone. Lost is when you hope to be found again, even though once you've been found... is there any guarantee that you'll be loved again?

No.

That was it. She had witnessed it time and time again, every case slightly different. Sometimes they were never found again, lost hearts wandering the bright white corridors which she could walk blindfolded. The heartbreak to her was just another minute in her job; there were two different faces that she would see day-in-day-out. The one that was sat before her: hope, longing, desire... sadness or the one that she would much prefer, but was found few and far between: Ecstatic, warmth, trust... happiness.

She walked over to check her patient's status like she had many times before, and left the room, silently shutting the door behind her to allow the man to grieve in peace.

He gripped her hand as tight as possible, although as not to crush her delicate, china white fingers. He managed to lift his head from his shoulders – feeling as if it weighed as much as a bowling ball – to look up to the beautiful face of his fiancé, the hope in his heart was now only a glowing log that was left behind from the roaring fire it had held the previous day.

'_Hey baby' the smile on her face beamed through the night, the sparkle of her eyes glinting in the moonlight._

_He didn't respond immediately until he caught a glimpse of anxiousness in her eyes. 'I love you' he finally replied with, his heart was beating out of his chest, thrumming in his ears._

'_I love you too... are you ok?' he had hoped that his declaration of love would have calmed the worry, but it hadn't managed the desired effect._

'_Yeah, I'm fine' he walked slowly towards her, taking her hand in his 'come over here a minute' she nodded, following his request as he led her by their joined hands towards a stone bench just off of the coastal path they were following. It was not unusual that they would take a late night stroll after dinner and a movie to wind down before bed._

_Sitting her down on the side of which his bulging pocket was not, so as he could gain immediate access to it when the time was right._

'_It's beautiful tonight Lucas' she said with a gentle sigh of satisfaction before resting her head on his shoulder looking out to the view in front of them, allowing the sea breeze to waft through her hair. She lifted her hand to adjust the loose strand that had fallen across her face, but he beat her to it as he gently caressed the silky lock away. He lent down to kiss her on the forehead before finally feeling the urge to reach into his trouser pocket._

_She sat up, feeling his movement, permitting his shoulder to move freely watching the tightly defined muscles beneath the close fitting shirt he was wearing. Her gaze was directed to his face as he swivelled round to face her, she could see his face was slightly flushed and felt a hint of confusion cover her although it quickly faded away as she looked down towards his hands which hold a small velvet box._

'_Lucas Scott, forever the traditional' she thought to herself before suddenly realising what was about to happen. She felt her heart rapidly quicken its pace, felt her stomach feel as if it flipped over twice, felt her own cheeks redden in the anticipation to hear his following speech._

'_Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer' he paused taking in the moment to look into her eyes for any sign of hesitation but only found tears of happiness brimming her eyes as she slowly blinked them away, letting them roll down her soft cheeks. 'I love you with all my heart, and I know that will never change, I want to be with you forever, through every hard moment to come, to hear the cries of our children in the night, to offer to get up and see to them so that their mother can try and get some rest. I want to love and cherish you forever and I promise I will try with everything I have to never let you down.' There was only one thing left to say... 'Will you marry me?'_

_By now there were streams of tears falling over the sloping curves of her face, her brain taking in what he had just said, knowing that all he had just said was all that she had ever wanted with him and now there was only one thing left to say... 'Yes'_

He heard the sudden alarm go off in his head, to stay awake, to stay by her side. He reached over to her bedside table with one hand, the other determined to stay with hers as it had been the whole of the last night, proving to be difficult when attempting to change gears in the car. He quickly lashed his hand back, as if he had just scolded it against a hot surface.

'Stupid! Idiot! Stupid! Idiot!' he screamed to the room as if wanting in to fall down on top of him as any punishment to what he had done. Lifting the jug of cold water he poured some into his other hand, cupped so as to hold as much as possible. He threw the liquid over his face, making his spine shiver violently from the shock of the sudden change in temperature, shaking his head to rid of any excess drips still lingering on his skin.

'_Thank you' it was the first word she had said since she had accepted his proposal, he had begun to wonder whether she regretted saying yes._

'_For what?' he asked knowing full well what she was thanking him for._

'_You know' she said softly glaring into his blue eyes. She knew him to well..._

'_Sorry, I just want to hear it' he said smugly, half winking at her, whilst still trying to keep his eyes on the road._

'_Fine' she replied whilst letting a soft laugh escape her throat, 'thank you future husband, for proposing to me tonight, it was beautiful and amazing and I can't imagine it having gone any better or being more perfect, you my dear Lucas Scott, are wonderful' she had first started off sounding sarcastic but her tone of voice had changed into a flurry of mixed emotions, but he was surprised to hear the most to heartfelt pride. 'I'm unbelievably lucky to have you.'_

That same alarm went off again, although not in his head this time. He looked up to see the flashing light signalling an alarm that had woken him from his soft slumber. His slightly slept deprived gaze darted across to the monitor that had been hooked to Peyton ever since she had got out of surgery, only to feel his heart drop into his stomach as he saw the flat line rolling across the screen.

Everything turned into slow motion from then on, the door swung open as half a dozen nurses and doctors flew through the door to rush to Peyton's bedside, flourishing around tubes and needles to prod and poke the one person who meant everything in the world to him. A sudden burst of anger took over him as he tried to push one of the nurses out of the way as she was holding a particularly long needle, he felt protective of the curly blonde lying on the bed in front of him although he knew that these were the exact people who could make her better.

A strong pair of hands gripped to his shoulders, pushing him outside of the doors to wait outside. However much he tried to push the male nurse away, his tired body was no match for him as he felt a much gentler pair of hands turn him around to face their owner. Haley pulled him in to hold him tight, allowing his shattered body to shake with violent tears that flowed out of him as the gateway had been bashed down which he no longer bothered to even try to keep held up. She pulled him over to one of the waiting room seats and sat him down.

A swarm of people surrounded him, much like how the nurses and doctors had with Peyton only moments before. Nathan, Haley and Brooke came to support him, Haley and Brooke took the seats next to him whilst Nathan went off to go and get four cups of coffee.

He didn't want any of this. All he wished at that moment was to be with Peyton and for her to be alright.

Unfortunately for Lucas, he was about to find that not everyone's wishes are granted... the hard way.

**_Please, please review, they mean so much to me and I think make me update quicker._**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Hope. Faith. Belief.

_A/N: As a lot of people have asked, this story is set in the break between s4 and 5 so none of the turned down proposal happened. Thank you soo much for the reviews on the previous chapter, they mean loads to me, you wouldn't believe how much, so please review again and enjoy the next chapter! :)_

**The anger swells in my guts**

**And I won't feel these slices and cuts**

**I want so much to open your eyes**

'**Cause I need you to look into mine**

Hope – the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best: _to give up hope._

Faith – confidence or trust in a person or thing: _faith in another's ability._

Belief – Mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something: _His explanation of what happened defies belief._

Three words in the dictionary which relate strongly to one another, three emotions that Lucas Scott needed at that moment, none of which he had.

All he could feel was numb. His brain was numb from wrecking it, trying to find a miracle for the woman in operating theatre three. His hands were numb from their ice cold temperature being emitted from the ice pack he held to them after having punched the hallway walls. His heart was numb as all he could feel was guilt being pumped around his body.

The stillness of the chapel he was sat in didn't calm his raging thoughts, he was angry at himself for letting this happen. He heard the distinct click of a door opening behind him, expecting it to be another griever from the hospital he didn't turn around to see the room's new occupant. Although a heavy hand on his shoulder forced him to look up.

Nathan didn't say anything at first; he just sat beside his elder brother, sighing from the stress of the day, he finally turned to face him.

'Luke-' Lucas could tell he didn't know what to say, searching for the words that would take the horrible past few hours away.

'What?' He sharply retorted.

'Look, we're all here for you, but if you're happy to wallow on your own in here, punching walls. Then fine. But don't expect us to be here when you get back. We're trying to help you man! Let us try to help.'

'But there is _nothing _you can do. There's nothing any of us can do to help Peyton now.' There was a pause after his words which were cracking under the strain of determination not to cry again. 'It's all my fault.'

'Lucas, this was not your fault.' Nathan's voice had turned into a stern whisper, still considering that they were in a chapel.

'But it was!' He half laughed whilst a single tear rolled down his cheek bone which he quickly whipped away, wincing slightly at the sudden movement to his hand which was badly bruised and cut. 'If I hadn't been trying to be such a romantic prick, none of this would have happened.'

'_No! Don't let go!' Peyton laughed at him as he awkwardly undid his seatbelt with his free hand, then moving over to her seat as to unbuckle hers. 'There, done. Ok, now I'll climb out of your door after you.'_

'_Ok' she replied, finding it hard to stifle her laugh, but it was very late, and with a newborn baby next door she was trying to be considerate._

_He clambered over onto her seat. 'Move over a bit' he said trying to force his foot out of where it had got stuck between the steering wheel and seatbelt that it was hooked in._

_She stepped into the road to allow him room to manoeuvre himself in her small comet._

'You know our road has that sharp corner, just to the right of our house?' Lucas' voice was quivering from the strain of remembering the hours of the early morning that they had arrived home at. Nathan nodded in reply. 'Well Peyton was standing in the road so I could get out, it was 2am Nathan! Our road is so quiet no cars come... time... lights.' His sentence trailed off, taking in a deep breath so that he could continue the story. 'It came around so quickly, no lights on. I still had my head in the cushion of the seat, holding her hand. That was until I felt it being jerked out, I looked around and there she was, lying motionless on the floor. Nathan, you didn't _see _the angle she was lying in. It was horrible, the car had driven off and I ran over to her. There was blood everywhere Nathan, what have I done?' At that point the emotion overwhelmed him, and he started to cry into his hands, not making a sound. Nathan sat back, taking in all his brother had just told him.

Just then, another click resembling the chapel door being opened was heard. Haley walked swiftly in to stand by her husband and best friend, but before she got the chance to say anything, Nathan had jumped up and softly pushed his wife back out into the corridor, closing it behind them.

'What are you doing?' she shouted whilst batting away his hand from her shoulder.

'He needs to be alone now. He'll come to us when he needs us.' Haley nodded as a tear fell from the eyes that Nathan adored so much. She fell into the crook of his neck and he gently brushed her hair through his fingers, placing his head on top of hers.

Lucas got up to walk to the door of the chapel, leaving only to go to rinse his hands in the toilets to remove the dried blood on them. His hand didn't reach the door handle before Brooke crashed into him, she had the signs of heavy crying, the stains from the tears she had shed covering her cheeks.

She looked up to who she had bumped into and pulled him out of the chapel to stand in the hallway with her. 'Lucas, she's out of surgery, the doctor came asking for you. About something that had gone wrong.' She paused to compose herself. 'Luke, it sounded really bad, but I wasn't really listening, I knew I had to come find you straight away.'

He didn't say anything, just ran off to find the man who had been operating on Peyton. Brooke leant her tired body against the wall and slunk down it, melting into a destroyed mess curled up on the floor.

The pace of his running was fast as it echoed through the corridors; he slowed at the corners, not wanting to crash into anyone. The flashbacks started coming back, the sudden sensation of her hand being ripped out of his; he could have sworn he heard the crunch of bones breaking at the impact of the black car and Peyton's small frame.

Hope.

He felt hope for the first time, hope that Brooke was somehow wrong, that it was the wrong doctor, the wrong patient... anything!

Once he had finally found the surgeon he started to fire questions at him until Haley ran up behind him.

'Shh... Luke, give him a chance to explain.'

'Thank you Mrs. Scott' he nodded thankfully in her direction as Lucas scowled at him 'Peyton's condition is serious, but we've managed to patch her up as best as we could.'

'Patch her up?!' Lucas thought 'What does this man consider his patients as? Dolls?!

'Ok, so what went wrong? Brooke said something went wrong... where is she, is she going to make it?'

'Mr. Scott, your fiancé suffered serious head trauma from the impact. The internal bleeding became a serious problem but we managed to stabilise her. You can't see her yet, but we will let you know as soon as you can. She's strong, there are no promises in whether she will make it, but have faith Mr. Scott.'

Faith.

The doctor said he had to have faith in Peyton, and if that was what was going to pull her through this, he would put all his faith in the world onto Peyton. Peyton was strong; she had got through two mother's deaths, a near death experience from a shooting in the school, psycho Derek attacking her. Peyton had been through a lot in her life... she would be able to get through this.

'Have faith. Have faith' the two words swirled around in his head as he turned back to the waiting room chairs.

Belief.

The odds were against her, but as Lucas sat there, hoping that she would be alright, having faith in that she would be alright. That against it all he started to have belief in the fact that she would in fact, be alright.

**Review. Review. Review. :D**


	3. Chapter 3

_All your reviews mean so much to me so please continue to do so :) Enjoy :D_

Chapter 3 – Senses

**Get up, get out, get away from these liars**

'**Cause they don't get your soul or your fire**

**Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine**

**And we'll walk from this dark room for one last time**

He found her sobbing on the ground, her tears almost having formed a puddle around her face which was against the cold vinyl floor. A few strands of wet hair were stuck to her face. He felt a sudden pang of guilt and sorrow for the woman lying in front of him; he suspected it must have been at least fifteen minutes that she had been on the floor since he had left to look for the doctor.

'Brooke...' Lucas sat on the floor beside her, realising that he needed to be there for Brooke as well as everyone looking out for him. Her best friend was critically ill and she had no one there for her as Nathan and Haley had gone home to check up on Jamie and Deb, to let them know what had happened. He needed to be strong for Peyton, to keep faith in her; she would have wanted him to help Brooke through this as well.

She hadn't moved to look at him; eyes shut firmly causing her forehead to wrinkle and her nose to scrunch up slightly, not wanting to allow any more tears to seep through her eyelids. Sensing that she wouldn't be taking the first move any time soon he pulled at her two shoulders and curled her up in his lap instead of keeping her resting on the floor outside of the quiet chapel, liable to be banged if anyone from inside wanted to come out. He felt her body stiffen when he first moved her, reluctant to be weak in front of anyone but gradually her muscles began to loosen and she snuggled into his torso. Not long after, Lucas was surprised to find the tell tale signs of sleep coming over the brunette situated in between his legs now, as she had slowly slipped downwards as she lost control of her body due to exhaustion and lack of sleep.

He didn't restrain from the fact that she fell asleep, but rested his head against the hard wall behind him and simply let his eyes close and in minutes he was also fast asleep.

----------------

Suddenly cursing he shook his head from his jolting awakening, looking up to see a rushing man running down the corridor calling back an apology as Lucas rubbed his leg where he had just been inadvertently kicked. Realising for the first time since he had woken up of the being resting on him as Brooke began to wriggle in his lap, also having been disturbed.

Looking down at his watch whilst Brooke sat up he was surprised to find that they hadn't been woken before as they had been sleeping in the hallway for almost an hour.

'How long was I asleep?' the brunette asked wearily, wiping away the sleep and remainders of her tears from her eyes.

'We were out about an hour'

'I'm glad you got some rest too, we both definitely needed it, thanks Lucas but don't you want to be going and asking about Peyton now?' he was grateful that Brooke was thinking of him, but he could hear the clouded disappointment in her voice, clearly willing him to stay with her.

So he struck a compromise, 'only if you come with me.'

Her eyes light for a moment, nodding vigorously jumping up and offering a hand to help him up. He grasped her hand in his and allowed her to pull him up off the ground, feeling the kinks in his muscles straighten out after having been sleeping on the floor.

They found Peyton's doctor just about to walk into one of the patients rooms before Lucas called to him, making him look quickly around. Lucas saw a glimpse of discomfort flash across his eyes but willed himself to dismiss it until he knew what was actually going on. Feeling the hope inside of him grow by the second; wishing that Peyton was ready for visitors by now.

'Ah, Mr. Scott'

'What's the news?' Lucas was eager to know what was going on after having been away for a long time suddenly thinking that he would feel extremely guilty if Peyton had been allowed visitors earlier than now but he hadn't been there. Oh God... what if she was awake? What if he wasn't there holding her hand when he woke up?

'Well Peyton's condition hasn't changed much'

'So she's still unconscious? Is she allowed visitor yet?'

'Yes Peyton is still unconscious and unfortunately is still not allowed visitors until we see an improvement, I am growing concerned that she has not shown any signs of her condition getting better, we would have expected a significant difference in the time since the surgery.' Lucas felt Brooke grip his forearm tightly but sharply retract her fingernails as she realised she was digging them in.

'But no improvement is better than it getting worse, right?' the question sounded stupid to him after having asked but didn't bother with retracting it as he waited on the doctors reply.

'Well yes of course, but as I say, we expect a significant improvement by now' Lucas felt that the man before him was urgently trying to hint something to him, but in the laws of doctoring he was not allowed to actually speak the words aloud.

'So you're basically saying don't get your hopes up then?' he almost spat the words out to the doctor, becoming increasingly aggravated with his methods by each encounter.

'I'm sorry Mr. Scott, we will do all we can for her, we will let you know if there is anymore news.'

Lucas didn't bother replying, just turned away jerking out of Brooke's grip on his arm walking off in the direction of the loos leaving Brooke to mutter a 'thanks' to the bringer-of-bad-news and sit down in one of the itchy waiting room seats.

--------------

The first thing she felt was that feeling when you wake up some mornings and feel as if you're falling, it seemed to last longer than normal as her brain inactively decided to finally swing around into motion.

She immediately found something wrong, everything was dark, her mind blank to what had happened to her. Frantically searching for some kind of knowledge in her brain she attempted reaching up her legs as to sit up yet finding no result in her attempts. Panic setting in thick and fast in her stomach she pulled her brain into overload until the screeching and crashes echoed through her skull, reflecting off the bone into the empty hole left in her head of where her knowledge had once been until finally the trails of thought began to come back to her. At first she felt slightly more at ease knowing that her memory had begun to return to her yet that emotion went as quick as it had come as the memories flooded in were horrible moments in her life. Black car lead to black shirt which she was wearing the day of the shooting, leading to the pain she had felt in her leg, to the fact that she had no pain or even feeling in her limbs at the moment, seeing Nathan in the wheelchair, imagining herself in one, maybe it was worse, maybe she was dead right now, like she had watched her mother slip away, like the effects of cancer had had on Ellie resulting to death. Then a sudden memory came into her thoughts sprouting from nowhere. Running. Her tendency to run from her true feelings, which she had a particular habit of doing up until recently. That's when her mind eventually came around to the thought of him. Lucas. The man she loved so dearly, that had proposed to her the previous night.

She felt her mind wander through all the wonderful memories with him, thankful for the change in mood in her thoughts. Then a sudden feeling immediately broke her thoughts and made her heart skip a beat. She had felt a distinct feeling, one she had felt many times before. She couldn't quite place it, the immediate thought was love, and her thoughts had struck her hard on how much she loved her fiancé right then. But it was different as she travelled her mind further down her body from her heart as she reached the indescribably relieving grasp of Lucas holding her hand. Her senses were slowly coming back to her. She could hear a whisper from beside her, his whisper.

'Tell me that you'll open your eyes' he repeated the sentence in a hushed whisper whilst rocking her hand in his at the same rhythm to what he was saying.

'Yes' she croaked out.

At first he brushed off the sentence, it sounding exactly like the night before when she had accepted his proposal, simply expecting it to be a memory as he began to repeat his sentence over and over again until her felt her shake their joined hands slightly.

The emotion was inexplicable as how relieved he was to see her soft green eyes finally looking back at him in what had seemed like a decade. Not moving he just stared at her, mouth marginally ajar from the shock of her waking up when only twenty minutes ago a doctor had told him not to have any hope in Peyton waking up ever again.

'You ok?' Peyton spoke but Lucas didn't see her lips move as his vision became hazy. 'Lucas!' she shouted becoming increasingly worried at the incredible distance in his eyes as if he was about to fall asleep any minute. As he began to sway slowly in his seat she jerked up as if to catch him before screaming in pain, feeling her injuries for the first time.

That broke him out of his stupor, immediately rubbing away his hazy vision, his tears lingering in his eyes as he shot up to lie Peyton back down and apologise profusely for having not replied and got her worried.

After the moment calmed down Lucas tucked up the sheets underneath her legs and brought his eyes back up to meet hers. She reached out the arm that wasn't in a heavy cast and pulled him closer to her face, feeling his hot breath against her skin, breathing out his words.

'God I missed you' as one of his tears fell onto her lip he kissed it away. Feeling that the belief, hope and faith parade around his body, as if he had proved medicine and science wrong. His Peyton could get through anything.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: I have run out of verses from the song which still applied for the story, but it set a great basis and let the ideas for this story flow for me._

_Also sorry that it is really short, but I didn't want to ruin the end... now you'll have to read and find out what the end is ;)  
_

Chapter 4 – Acid Burns

'Don't leave me' she winced after seeing the memory of the school shooting glaze over his eyes, 'sorry, I didn't mean to say that, it's just...'

'It's ok Peyton, don't worry about it' he pushed out a smile before walking towards the door again.

'Aren't you gonna stay then?' her voice carried utter disappointment at the fact that he was still leaving when she had just asked him to stay.

'Sorry, my minds a bit... everywhere at the moment, of course I'll stay' this time the smile was genuine as he sat in the seat beside her bed, yet the thoughts that were crowding his mind still didn't budge.

There was an awkward silence until Peyton finally plucked up the courage to ask his dreaded question, 'Lucas what's wrong?'

He had already contemplated how to tell her this, yet no ways seemed good.

'_Mr. Scott, wait!' He barely heard Peyton's doctor call after him as he hastened towards the bathrooms, ignoring him as he suspected it only to be more useless words of comfort which he no longer needed._

_Bursting into one of the cubicles he emptied his stomach into the basin, the smell of strong disinfectants not helping his churning stomach. He pulled his head up to look around at himself in the mirror; he had heavy bags under his eyes, pale skin and extremely dishevelled hair._

'_Lucas, are you ok?' The voice surprised him, hearing the woman's voice behind him._

_Turning to face her he nodded slowly, so as not to become dizzy again. He didn't feel able to speak, feeling as though if he opened his mouth he would just be rushing back to the toilet again._

'_Come here' she spoke comfortingly, walking towards him, not giving him time to force his best friends embrace away before she squeezed him tightly. He sharply pulled away from Haley's arms, spinning back around to the sink coughing out the remainders of what was left to come out._

'_Oh... sorry' Haley came towards him and stroked up and down his back in a way a mother would to their sick child in the middle of the night, she had always played as a young mother figure slash sister than a close friend._

'_It's ok' his voice came out groggier than expected, he felt the back of his throat burning from the acid of his stomach. 'I need a drink.'_

'_Ok, I'll get you one, but the doctor says he needs to see you.'_

'_Again?' He raised an eyebrow at the fact that he had been speaking to him only minutes before._

'_That's what he said' followed by a shrug of her shoulders and beginning to walk out of the toilets only to be met in the doorway by a large man who looked down at her questioningly. Haley blushed rapidly and sidled out of the door letting out a nervous apology._

'Get some sleep, and once you've fallen asleep I'll go and tell your doctor that you woke up.'

Peyton nodded and turned over on the side that she always slept, at first he had wondered whether it was because she didn't want to face him at night. But when he confronted her about it, it seemed it was only another of Peyton's cute little quirks which he found absolutely adorable.

He sat there until he heard her breathing start to get heavier as she began to sleep once again. Standing up as quietly as possible he tip-toed over to the door and shut it silently behind him. The first place he went was to where Haley, Nathan, Brooke and by now his mother was sitting. Brooke was the first to notice him on the way back from pacing the width of the waiting area, she lunged towards him slightly, wanting to hear any news that he might hold.

Before answering any questions he greeted his mother with a tight hug then turned to the group. 'She's asleep' after seeing the disappointed looks he realised that they hadn't actually found out that she had been awake so quickly followed with, 'But she did wake up, she was ok if she sat still, I had better go and tell the doctors that she woke up' but before he could make his way towards his search, Haley had grabbed his arm back to face them.

Her eyes were glinting with tears of happiness and a large yet soft smile covered her face, he travelled his eyes around the room to be met with three identical faces looking back at him. Brooke's smile was slightly larger than all others from the relief of having her best friend back, but overall the group were simply overjoyed. All he did was nod in reply and plaster a replica of the expressions in front of him onto his own face, receiving hugs from the entire group before setting off again in search of Peyton's doctor.

----

'Thank you for coming to tell me Mr. Scott, I will get someone to come and check her over' he paused for a second 'I'm sure you are very pleased, have you informed Miss. Sawyer of the situation yet though?'

'No, I haven't. I was going to let her get some sleep first.'

'That is a wise choice Mr. Scott, she has been through a lot but I'm sure you should be telling her soon.' He smiled then informed Lucas that he had to go and check on another patient before leaving Lucas again. For the first time since Peyton had come in, he began to like the doctor that had been caring for her the last few hours. He truly understood Lucas' decision to wait a while, whereas he had a hunch that a few other people he knew would be somewhat... disapproving.

----

By the time he made his way back to Peyton's room he found a nurse also in there with Peyton sitting up holding a magazine in her good hand.

'Hey' she looked up at him and beamed her gorgeous smile at him, he couldn't help but smile back, he had missed that, and was surprised to see how high spirited she was having just been in a serious hit and run. If he could lay his hands on him...

'What's wrong?' Inadvertently his smile had turned into a frown whilst thinking of the person who had almost killed his fiancé.

'Sorry, I was just thinking of the person who hit you' Peyton frowned sympathetically and becalmed him towards her which he obliged, sitting on the edge of the bed.

'It wasn't their fault Lucas I was standing in the road'

'If that's what made it someone's fault then that means it was mine! If I hadn't insisted on holding your hand the whole time, you wouldn't even have been in the road!' he hadn't meant to shout but his voice had escalated in volume 'besides, the driver didn't have any lights on, and he just drove off Peyton... who could do something like that?'

'I don't know honey, but whatever you do, don't blame yourself. Also don't hold all this anger in, you can see, I'm here, I'm ok.'

'Peyton... I have to tell you something'

She had caught the discomfort in his tone and scrunched her eyebrows slightly in confusion, nodding him on.

'When the doctors got you in here and ran some tests... something came up...'

'What?' Peyton's voice had quickly changed, her brains wrecking, trying to think of what could have shown up to make him so worried.

'You were tested pregnant Peyton'

**A/N: Thank you for reading... please let me know what you think should be happening to the baby because I haven't yet decided and I have left it in a way that could go in either direction, so if you would like to see this story follow in a certain way then please review and let me know... thanks :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 11 – False Expectations

All she did was sit there, bolt upright, staring at him in a way which was digging inside his body. Her face had gone pale and eyes watery in seconds. Waiting for her reaction he walked over and began to glide his hand up and down her frozen arm which she shrugged away and turned her face towards the door so that he couldn't see the tears start to slowly trickle down her face.

'I w-what?' The words came out quietly and shaken, her head still facing the exit.

'The doctors don't know whether it'll be ok, it's so young that it may still get through this... but there's no promises, this could endanger you too Peyton.'

'Stop calling our baby 'it'' her voice had turned into a snarl and she caught him very off-guard when she flung her arms around and started to hit him – hard.

He let her hit him for a while, and when the muscles in her arms began to weaken, he grabbed the flailing arms and pulled her body close, burying her head into his chest. She tried to fight back but he kept his grip firm as she eventually melted into him. He let a couple of gentle tears slip from his own eyes; it broke his heart to see her like this. They stayed in that position for a while until she pulled back and looked him straight in the face.

'But that means... the baby didn't... the baby didn't die right?' he puzzled at her question for a moment, her head must have been in many places to have not been able to put two and two together.

'No Peyt, our baby didn't die, the doctor said there's nothing they can do so we just have to go through the pregnancy very carefully. Things could turn out normally but we'll have to keep you coming back for check-ups and things more regularly than usual if we keep it.'

'Of course we'll be keeping it Lucas, I'll be fine, you know better than everyone that I'm a fighter. We'll get through this.' He nodded silently and she pulled him back in, shuffling across the bed she signalled for him to sit next to her, he moved across until there was no room between their bodies. She didn't start to cry again but closed her eyes and brought their joined hands to rest upon her stomach.

'Our babies gonna be ok... I know it' her eyes were still closed and her voice was drifting off as her hands slowly stopped rubbing circles on her stomach as she gradually fell asleep.

His mind was too active to get any sleeping done; he just prayed that Peyton was right that she _and _the baby would be fine.

He was just beginning to doze off - after about twenty minutes of Peyton breathing heavily and pulling his shirt closer to her, almost painfully tight around his chest - when Brooke walked in the room. The sudden arrival of her jolted him from his troubled dozing and his head bumped against Peyton's causing a sharp moan of disapproval from the sleeping beauty.

'Sorry' he whispered in her ear and began to stroke his fingers through her hair as in hope for her to fall back to sleep again. Then remembering Brooke at the door again he slowly pulled Peyton off of his chest and rested it back against the pillow, moving round the bed so he could kneel next to her and resume stroking her blonde curly locks.

The room stayed virtually still until he was happy with the fact that Peyton had gone back into her slumber. He motioned for Brooke to go back out again and she gave him a slightly disgruntled look but obeyed his request, going out the way she had come a few minutes before.

'I wanted to talk to her' realising as Lucas drew up his eyebrows that she had sounded faintly like a five year old about to throw a tantrum she quickly followed with an apology and waited for him to begin to explain the current situation.

It was a lose-lose-situation he was in... if he didn't tell his friends and family the truth then they would be upset and disappointed, if he _did _tell them on the other hand, his fiancé would personally shut him out and bring up those huge steel shutters of hers, closing herself off from the surrounding world.

Not quite believing how he pondered on the situation for more than a second, he made the easy decision of keeping quiet. His friends and family would understand his reasoning, and it's not like it would be unfair of Peyton to be mad at him.

Although the news was worrying, it should also be a dream come true. Since he had been told, he hadn't been able to think about it in that way. Firstly because she was still unconscious at the time, secondly because it was doubted that his child would survive anyway and thirdly because his mind hadn't been given time to come around to the idea of it before Peyton had finally decided to wake up, causing his mind to go into auto-pilot overdrive thinking of a way to tell his fiancé who had just been in a terrible car accident that she was, in fact... pregnant.

Snapping out of his daze and looking around the familiar faces he realised another look of bewilderment gazing back at him, his face was plastered with an unusual emotion and before he knew what was happening he just blurted it out, 'Peyton's pregnant.' It would have been a minor understatement of the truth to say that the crowd were somewhat surprised from his sudden outburst.

The first to speak was Haley, after having had a long pause between the group of utter shock, he hadn't been worried though as he saw the smiles slowly creep up on each face in front of him. 'I take it that the baby's alright then?' He found it unusual for Haley to come out with such a sarcastic and light-hearted remark at this kind of point in time, but it didn't bother him as he answered the question.

'Well, they don't exactly know. There's no immediate danger that they can find, we were lucky at how Peyton had been hit, not really impacting on her stomach as much as other places at all. We're going to have to be more careful than other pregnancies and basically just hope for the best.'

Her eyes had welled up with tears of joy for her best friend. As had Brooke's and his mother's by this point, Nathan seemingly the only person to be able to keep himself composed other than himself. Haley pulled him into a tight embrace and quietly spoke into his ear so no one else would have been able to hear the exact words, 'congratulations Luke' (followed by a short intake of breath so she could continue) 'you're both going to be great parents, and I'll pray for you two that the baby and Peyton will be alright.'

'Thanks Hales' he was glad that she didn't make some kind of false promise that she 'knew' the baby and Peyton would be fine when she actually had no way in telling, and took comfort in the fact that his best friend knew him so well, and gave him what he needed.

He received congratulations from each member until he informed them that he was going to go and get some more things for Peyton from the house, meanwhile they could all go and see Peyton as they wanted to.

He felt guilty for having let slip about the news, but hoped that Peyton wouldn't be too angry with him.

-----

'What the hell Lucas?!' Well, if there was something he should have learned a hundred times, it was never to underestimate the temper of Peyton Sawyer. He had been most definitely wrong to tell everyone about Peyton being pregnant.

'I-I'm sorry Peyton, I didn't mean to tell them. It just kinda... slipped out...' Her green eyes were glaring at him, and before he knew it, he had made the second biggest mistake of the day. He laughed. Her glare was so scrunched up in a way that almost looked painful to hold for more than two seconds, which made him erupt into laughter, rumbling through his throat until he let it out. Of course to be met by even more of a backlash.

'Oh for heaven's sakes Lucas! You can't keep any emotions inside of you for more than five minutes, can you? Have you never heard of such a process called 'thinking' it's a popular thing to do these days, especially around PREGNANT WOMEN!' She had a point. But the angrier she was, in his eyes, the cuter she got. As his eyes softened he slowly saw hers follow suit as she grumbled an apology.

He walked over and brushed back her fringe so he could press a kiss to her forehead, he dropped the hair and followed his hand around to under her chin, making sure his touch was delicate so that Peyton would react in the way he knew she would.

'St-top i-it Lucaas' she managed to splutter out between giggles.

'God Peyton, I'm so glad you're awake, I've missed your laugh' his words made her smile broaden 'your smile' he said whilst tracing the pad of his thumb over her soft lips.

'Thank you, for the record I'm glad I'm back too'

'I'm serious; don't ever leave me again... ok?'

Tilting up his head she looked into his eyes 'I won't' taking his hand and drawing it towards her stomach 'we won't'.

'Peyton...' he pulled away quickly and slumped down into the chair next to her bed.

Her voice was full with worry, disappointment and disapproval 'what Lucas?' her voice had turned hard following his actions 'do you not want this baby?'

_A/N: Look back... do you think Lucas wants the baby? Let me know if it came as a shock, or if you had expected it. I will be happy either way, I don't mind it being predictable :)  
_

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	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – All Over Again

_A/N: This chapter is a little shorter than usual and doesn't contain much story but I felt that we needed a bit more dialogue and to let you know the feelings of everyone there. Also this chapter is dedicated to MaygenLauren for her help recently with both of my stories. Thanks! :)  
_

He couldn't reply. So many thoughts were streaming through his head; too fast to comprehend any that flitted past at that moment.

'Well?' Her question was fired at him with such force that he let out a strangled moan. He began to choke – unintentionally, but not unwelcomed – he stood up and swiftly left the room, in aid of water he had spluttered out to the angry blonde.

He stepped outside the room and laid his forehead against the cold wall, harder than expected, grumbling at the pain that it had inflicted and yet again crashed his fist into the wall. Once, twice, three times he pounded it violently, crushing the bones. Although unable to go back for a fourth as Nathan's fist grabbed his shirt and pulled him back out of the corridor and into the open waiting room where there were no walls he could reach to hit. So instead, Lucas resorted to hitting the nearest thing he could find... Nathan.

'Hey! Stop, Lucas! Stop it! Man stop! If you don't stop I'll...' The words had come from a variation of mouths around him but Nathan was cut off when Lucas had rounded his fist into his brother's jaw. This earned him a slap from his best friend/wife of the man he had just hit and a just as forceful punch flung from Nathan who had by now stumbled up from the floor, using the momentum he had to force into his punch.

Lucas was propelled backwards and let his body fall to the floor, this was what he had been looking for; punishment. For the terrible thing he had done, that no one else yet knew about.

------

At first she had been astonished and sat mouth agape staring at the swinging door which Lucas had just ran out of. What could this mean? Did Lucas no longer love her? That seemed unlikely as he had just proposed... it had sounded genuine, but what if he had done it out of guilt? The tears started welling up in her eyes. Why would he not want their baby? They had talked about children countless times; she loved watching his eyes light up whenever the conversation arose.

Not long after the tears had turned into forceful rivulets falling down her face at record speeds did Brooke Davis walk into the room. Instantly seeing her best friends hurt she swooped over and gathered Peyton into her arms, perching herself on the side of the bed rocking from side to side. She stroked the large curl of her fringe back until the crying subsided, 'what has he done honey? What do I need to shout at him whilst kicking his ass this time?' When Peyton didn't reply or even smile at what she had said her heart broke a little more. She knew that Lucas must have done something even more terrible than anything he had done before.

Brooke felt Peyton's walls being put up when she dragged her tired and injured body away from Brooke's comforting arms and began to shake her head and start to mutter a request for Brooke to leave. 'Peyton, don't do this, let me help you with everything. You can come and stay at my house, in your old room. Like old times. Just tell me what's going on sweetie.'

This seemed to anger Peyton and again she shook her head. Not only was Brooke's heart aching in sympathy but she felt the subtle heat rising of frustration. She thought her best friend had changed. But obviously change came along with Lucas. Finding that her subtle tactics of persuasion weren't working, she pursued the old saying of _if you can't beat them... join them _and so, Brooke sat in the chair beside Peyton's bed 'If you won't talk to me now, then I'll just have to sit here until you do. And I'll have you know, if that pee-sized brain you've got in there at the moment doesn't remember. I'm no quitter.' Feeling satisfied with her equal match of stubbornness she made herself comfy, sitting back and closing her eyes until Peyton broke the silence, spilling all – or at least she hoped she would.

------

'Are you ok?' Haley asked Nathan as he rubbed tenderly at his jaw.

'Yeah, I'll be fine in a couple of minutes' Haley nodded but tears began to run traces of mascara down her cheeks. 'Hey Hales, what's wrong?' he said, taking her in his arms.

'Why does this happen? Everything was horrible when Peyton was unconscious, then she woke up. Then we found out she was pregnant but the baby and Peyton might not make it, and now this. I don't even know what's happened, how can I help Nathan? What's going to make everything ok again?'

'I don't know Haley, I honestly don't know. And I want to be able to help too, but we can't help all the time.' He smiled at the kindness of Haley's heart, always wanting to help other people before herself. 'I love you for worrying about them but we need to give them some space about the issue, just be there for them. As you said we can't do anything whilst we don't know what's going on.'

He had a fair point but the mothering stubbornness was wailing to come out, but if what Nathan had said was for the best then that's what she would do.

------

When she went to sit next to him again he was sat, head tilted up, clasping a blood drenched tissue to his nose, 'can I have another?' the nasally voice came out almost undecipherable, but after the first time he had said it and gestured towards the tissues in Haley's hand, she had got the message and handed yet another to him.

'When you bleed, you bleed good.' Haley attempted the light hearted remark but unknown to her she got the same response Brooke had received only seconds before in the room across the hall – no reply, and definitely no smile. Sighing and turning her head away from looking at Lucas and towards the hallway she closed her eyes, all of her previous conversation with Nathan flew from her mind when she did exactly what she had said she wouldn't do. 'Lucas, what happened this time? Peyton's only just woken up, you should be with her right now...' again no reply 'where's your head at Lucas, 'cause it certainly isn't here.'

Haley was right; Lucas was most definitely not in the waiting room at Tree Hill hospital. His mind had wandered back to the memory of two months and nine days before in New York City.

'It wasn't my fault Hales. I didn't initiate it, it just happened. Now I just don't know what to do...' Lucas had allowed tears to join the drips of blood running down his face.

'If you say it wasn't your fault Lucas then I will believe you. You're my best friend and I will always stand by you, but I _need _to know what's going on so I can help.' Haley pleaded with Lucas to let her in.

------

Peyton had finally let her in and Brooke was pleased that she had but felt all the emotions swamp over her in an instant. The sympathy, the anger, the disappointment, the fear and the sheer weight of the previous couple of days. It was all happening so fast and all at once, she sighed at the dilemmas that her closest friends had all been through. When they got through one devastation the happiness would never seem to last long enough, she just hoped that that would change soon.

**Hit the green button! You know you want to ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – Hostile Interactions

_A/N: This chapter doesn't focus much at all on Peyton, I tried to write Brooke well... I find it hard to feel how she would react in a situation. Let me know what you think :)_

After Peyton fell back to sleep, Brooke swept a single curl out of her eyes and walked quietly out of the room. She scanned the surrounding area and couldn't find who she was looking for. The only face she recognised was Nathan, so she went over to him.

'Hey Nate.'

'Brooke' he smiled wearily, she could see the bruise on his jaw and her eyes opened a little wider than they were before.

'Wow, your brother really can through quite a punch!'

'Tell me about it...' She let out a subtle chuckle before asking.

'Where are Lucas and Haley?'

'I'm not sure, sorry. Last time I saw them they were over there' he gestured towards a pair of waiting room seats 'but then I went to get some coffee and when I came back, they were gone.'

'Oh... Do you know what's happened?' Nathan shook his head.

'I assume you do?'

'Took a while for her to open up, but yes, I do. Sorry Nate, I would fill you in, but I really need to find Lucas and Haley now. I'll see you later ok?' Again Nathan nodded 'if she wakes up, I'm sure she'd love the company.'

'Ok Brooke' she smiled unsurely in response, she thought there seemed to be something wrong with him.

And with that she left to search the entire hospital if she had to.

------

In the end, that was what Brooke did, every room she was allowed access to she looked in. Much to her embarrassment she had also ventured into both gender toilets. They were nowhere, so she concluded that they either passed each other in her search, or they were no longer in the hospital. Deciding that Lucas wouldn't leave Peyton she went back to the waiting area outside Peyton's room, yet alas still no luck.

Whilst passing her best friends room, she peered in to see Nathan holding Peyton in a tight embrace as she cried vigorously onto his shoulder. She contemplated walking in to see if she could help, but left Nathan to it, sure that he would be able to help Peyton through this. Maybe he could explain the mad mind of his brother better than she could.

The breath of fresh air hit Brooke in the face in a way that seemed to clear all the distress out of the air for a split second. As soon as that second arrived however it was harshly ripped away when a flash of bronze hair hurried past her.

'Haley!' she shouted out. Haley whipped around on her heel with her phone gripped in her hand with her other hand covering her other ear so as she could hear the person on the other end of the line.

'I'm sorry Deb; I can't hear you very well right now. I'll call you back later, bye. Oh! And give Jamie a kiss from me' once she had flipped the front of her phone back down she walked back towards Brooke and hugged her tightly. 'He's a mess' she stated matter-of-a-factly.

'She's a mess' Brooke sighed. Haley only nodded and gestured for Brooke to follow her back inside out of the cold. 'I need to know why Lucas doesn't want the baby Haley.'

Haley was slightly surprised from Brooke's forwardness in the matter but answered none the less. 'He thinks he's done something really wrong Brooke, something that he feels he needs to tell Peyton before they can have a child together.'

Brooke's heart sank. He couldn't have... could he? He loved Peyton more than anything – or anyone – else in the world. 'And what was it that he's done?'

'I don't know Brooke. He's refusing to tell me' she shook her head in disbelief 'he won't tell _me _Brooke, and I'm his best friend... I can guess where your mind has gone, and mine has gone in exactly the same direction. But I can't quite get my head around it... he loves Peyton and he's always wanted children with _her _and he just proposed to her. I can't help thinking he proposed out of guilt though...'

'Where is he?' Haley could tell that Brooke was fuming and wondered whether it was the best idea to let her approach him in her state.

'Round the back' maybe if he was accused then he would stand up for himself and tell her that what she thought hadn't happened. Brooke got up and left without saying a 'thanks' or 'goodbye' so Haley called back 'but I didn't tell you that!'

Brooke raised one of her hands to signal that she had heard and would oblige to the secrecy.

------

'I don't know what's happened Nathan... we would talk about having children all the time' she sniffed back her emotions before carrying on 'I just want to get out of this room, go to him, hug him and tell him everything will be fine if he would just tell me what was going on.'

Nathan nodded in understanding. The voice in the back of his head was getting increasingly louder.

'Speaking of being able to get out this room, you don't know when you'll be able to get out do you?' he asked, changing the subject.

'In a few days the nurse said. The breaks aren't bad enough to be in a splint so I was just plastered up, to be sent back to a home with a fiancé who won't talk to me.'

'Com on Sawyer, you know he'll come to his senses before then' Nathan tried to lighten the mood.

'I'm not so sure Nate, you didn't _see _his face' if only she knew how wrong she was.

------

'Tell me you didn't!'

'Oh boy...' Lucas breathed out a sigh along with the smoke he had inhaled from the glowing cigarette resting between his fingers.

'Where did you get _that?_' she questioned, still shouting. 'I didn't think you smoked... then again I didn't think you cheated on the love of your life either. But hey! You seemed to have proved me wrong on both accounts.

He didn't seem at all phased; he had his eyes shut and took constant puffs of his cigarette. That was until Brooke ripped it out of his hand, dropped it on the floor and swivelled the toe of her shoe over it.

'I was using that.'

'I saw! Did you not just hear what I said?!'

'Yep.'

He was starting to seriously piss her off by now and being in Brooke's pissed off list, was not a place any sane person would want to be.

'Bastard...' she turned to leave before walking back and picking up the cigarette which she had crushed on the ground and dropped in the rubbish can just before stalking around the corner of the building.

He stayed exactly where he was, he knew Brooke Davis wasn't finished with him yet. If he didn't play along with her game where he should have followed and shouted back at her about how wrong she was, she would come back soon enough.

He looked up from his ticking watch as Brooke peered round the corner at him. '4 minutes and 16 seconds, I expected you to be quicker Brooke but you held out quite a while' he called back to her.

She shook her head and walked back up to him. She was not holding a smile on her face, but she had visibly calmed in the 4 minutes 16 seconds she had waited. 'Ok, so the shouting and screaming didn't work. Onto plan B' she paused to see his reaction, of which there was none. 'Lucas, just tell me what happened.'

'Two months and nine days' he stated, for the first time looking up and meeting Brooke's caring brown eyes.

She saw for the first time in a long while the broken and vulnerable Lucas Scott. He had been broken earlier in the week, no doubt about it, but there was something different gazing back at her. His eyes were so distant that it felt as though he was looking straight through her into the distance. She foolishly turned around to see no activity that he could be watching directly behind her; when she looked back, Lucas' stare had returned to his hands, flicking his short nails making an irritating sound.

'Stop' she quietly ordered.

He obliged immediately yet did not move his head so moved his eyes to a spot on the ground underneath him. 'I never should have done it Brooke, never... and I know that now... if only I had known that then...'

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	8. Chapter 8

_A'N: Oookkaaayyy... so here is my end of the bargain (readers don't worry about what I'm talking about)_

_I'm sorry, but in this chapter nothing more gets revealed... MWAHAHAHAHAAA... but don't worry people, I won't be able to keep this up much longer at all..._

_So the last chapter had a lot of Brooke, today we have a lot of Haley...  
_

Chapter 8 – It's a Long Way Down From Here

'Never have done WHAT?!' she just couldn't keep her rage in. Lucas was being a complete jackass to Peyton and couldn't even come out with a straight sentence as to why; it was starting to drive her insane because as she was not making any progress out here with _him, _Peyton would be crying all the fluids out of her body upstairs. And _that _was what was pulling Brooke apart in front of him.

It wasn't entirely her issue and she found herself breaking down in front of Lucas Scott, which is something she had promised herself she would never do again. She attempted to slide down the wall behind her but missed, causing her body to hit sharply against the ground.

Lucas looked around and thought about what this was doing to everyone; he couldn't help thinking that if _this _was their reaction _now_... what would it be like _after_ he had told them what he had done. It was a scene not worth thinking about.

------

Nathan sat in the chair beside Peyton's bed, clasping his jaw in his hand, numb to the pain which had been inflicted earlier. This was starting to get to him. His best friend was lying asleep in front of him and even in her sleep, there were unintentional tears slipping out of her eyes.

Lucas had taken this one step too far. Actually it was more like a marathon too far.

The nerves began to make him fidgety but he was determined not to leave her side. Instead he began to silently jog his left leg up and down, hoping to ease the tension out of his muscles.

------

Haley was still sitting alone in the main waiting room just inside the entrance. She was on her own down here and Brooke was with Lucas, whom she was certainly not going to interrupt and when she went to see Nathan – who she felt guilty having abandoned – found him talking softly to Peyton and combing the hair out of her face, urging her to sleep off the emotions.

To her surprise she had felt the slightest pang of guilt hit her heart, she knew it was childish and immature, but she really needed her husband right now. She felt her heart tearing a little bit more every minute that the clock ticked by.

Her best friend was royally screwing everything up and no one could seem to help him. One of her other best friends was lying injured on a hospital bed, crying herself to sleep because of her fiancé and her husband was paying little attention to her state... again she felt ashamed to have thought that.

The only person she had left was Brooke; she was keeping it all together, Peyton, herself and hopefully right now Lucas.

This thought however changed when she decided to peep around the corner at the situation Brooke and Lucas were in. Brooke was sitting against the wall, knees up covering her face which was resting between them. Everyone was broken and Haley _had_ to fix it. And fast.

She turned back around the corner and stretched her arms out grasping onto the cold garish yellow metal hand rail. She put her head between her hands and willed herself to find a way for this to all work out without knowing what was actually going on.

Eventually she worked out there was no way.

There was only one person who hadn't tried to get Lucas to tell the truth yet.

She ran up the ramp back into the building and weaved around the many people finding an enormous queue for the lift, deciding instead that she would take the stairs. Unfortunately taking the stairs consisted of running up twenty three flights which Haley's shattered body would not cope with. So she was thankful when after having walked up her fifth flight that in front of her stood a closing lift which she ran over and stuck her arm through the gap. Extremely thankful that the sensors were very sensitive and opened back up immediately.

She squeezed into the lift full with people and leaned over to push the button representing the number twenty three, she stared at it as it lit up along with the many other lit numbers. It was going to be a long journey up. Her mind strayed to the significance of the number twenty three. Nathan's jersey number was twenty three; she remembered back to the days that she would cheer on the side lines, watching her perfect husband run up and down the court, making her feel week in the knees. A slight smile tugged at her lips at the memories and she looked back around at the numbers, only two more stops and she would be there.

When the doors finally opened she burst out onto the twenty third floor of the hospital. She didn't understand what was making her run as fast as her body would aloe other than the determination, worry and fear filling her. She came to a halt outside Peyton's room and swiped the hair out of her face, smoothing it into a natural sitting position.

Twisting the door knob slowly, careful not to wake Peyton as she entered she opened the door and slipped through, silently clicking behind her. Peyton was lying facing the opposite window as Nathan slept against the side of her bed which seemed to look a very uncomfortable posture. She imagined massaging out the kinks for him later that night but brushed past the thought as Peyton cautiously turned to face her. Her cheeks were still stained with tears and her eyes were bloodshot but to Haley's relief she wasn't currently crying.

'How are you feeling?' Haley said in a nurturing voice.

'I'm sore all over, but I'll be ok...' she trailed off and Haley could sense her next question before it even came 'have you spoken to Luke yet?'

Haley nodded in response and moved over to sit on the chair the opposite side to Nathan was sitting. 'Yes, but I'm afraid I know no more than you do.'

Peyton immediately began to tear up again, her green eyes swelling to a seemingly enormous size as the tears magnified her pink tinted irises. 'Oh. Ok.'

Peyton forced out an unwilling smile as she nodded in acceptance. 'I'm sorry honey; I wish I could help more.' Haley let her speech flow out freely; she felt the pained expression covering Peyton's face drift onto her own. This was getting too unbearable for everyone to handle.

This jogged her mind back to the reason she came here. Peyton had shut her eyes again and she could see the deep breaths she was taking. Haley walked over to Nathan and rested her hand on his bulging shoulder, his muscles were tense and she smoothed her palm over them, willing them to soften.

Instead he shot up, shocked by the interruption of his thoughts.

'Sorry baby' she smiled lovingly down at him.

He attempted to return the same gesture but returned his head back to his clenched hands and got up to walk out of the room so that they could talk. Haley followed him out and presumed Peyton had fallen into another slumber as she didn't show any recognition of her visitors leaving.

------

In this time Lucas had not softened in the slightest and Brooke had mustered up enough strength to gather herself onto her feet again and confront him one last time.

After having confidently strode back up to Lucas who had moved barely an inch since she had been there she said, 'now I'm going to ask you this Lucas because it's what everyone is thinking to be the only logical answer, and you had better pray to God that everyone is wrong' her voice was threatening and unlike he had ever heard her speak. It affected him slightly yet not enough to make him act upon it. 'Did you or did you not...'

'No.'

'Let me finish!' she screamed at him and her voice broke at the level of volume she had produced.

'No I did not _cheat _on Peyton' he was swimming in incredibly dangerous waters.

She said nothing, she only turned towards him, slapped him as hard as she possibly could and ran off – her high heels that she had been wearing the last couple of days digging into her feet – as she covered her mouth with her palm and began crying audibly.

------

Once outside Haley took his hand in hers, intertwining their differently sized fingers and swayed their joined limbs slightly before turning to face him, she smiled sweetly at him and he smiled tiredly back. She then noticed the heavy bags weighing down his eyes and her smile turned sympathetically as her eyes softened.

'I'm fine' he said instantly.

She didn't believe him one little bit and he knew that, yet she decided not to press the matter, Nathan was a big boy and could look after himself.

'Ok well... I came to ask if you would try talking to Lucas for me' he began to shake his head and mumble something about him not making any difference before she cut in 'I know you think it won't make a difference, but you're the only person left who hasn't already tried and failed...' her eyes pleaded with him and the slightest chuckle tugged at his vocal chords but it didn't escape, instead he just let a smile twitch upon his lips.

Begrudgingly he nodded and pulled Haley into a hug. As he gripped his wife tightly he felt grateful for the life he had. His wife was the most amazing, caring, kind and beautiful woman in the world and at home he had a perfect son waiting for him.

She felt happy as they pulled out of the embrace and saw the smile covering his face, she loved Nathan so much sometimes that she thought her heart was swelling with so much love and pride sometimes that it was about to burst.

'Where is the man in question then?'

She smirked slightly at the connection of a suspect in a court case to Lucas that he had made. She nodded to the side for him to follow and as he did so, he reconnected their hands again.

For that moment, the world felt at peace again.

_A/N: Ok soo... Next we will have some Lucas/Nathan stuff and get to the bottom of some things, then we shall get back to our beloved Leyton :D_

_Please any new readers do review, don't feel as if you can't because you have only just started to read this story because I LOOOVE reviews and anything will make me happy :D Give me some consructive criticism if that is what you feel is needed :) Give me any guesses on what you think is going on!  
_

_P.S. everybody, if you are reading xoxotaylor's new story, there will be an update tonight so a quick heads up for that ;) No pressure love :D  
_


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Ok, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a long time. My laptop was broken for a majority of the time but I have had it back for about a week and a half in which time I do not have an excuse for not writing/updating either of my stories. Both the Simple and Open Your Eyes chapters had been started but neither finished. I will let you into a little secret though. I have two new things in the making. A story with a rather complicated background and a lot of fate. And a VERY dark oneshot. Let me know if you would have a preference on which I continued with first.**

Chapter 9 – Shattered

As Haley gripped to Brooke's shaking shoulders and stroked her matted hair, she nodded towards the exit for Nathan to leave. He gladly obliged feeling the tension of the entire situation as to be too overwhelming and ventured out into the welcomingly clear air. It surprisingly stung as the freshness of it rushed through his air ways; he found that not soon after his nostrils were filled with a different smell, the foul one of cheap cigarettes.

Looking round in the direction it had come from he saw Lucas lighting another up beside the bin. He walked up slowly and didn't miss the fact that Lucas pretended not to notice he was coming, instead walking in the direction he was now supposedly heading – away from Nathan.

'Stop walking away from this' Lucas heard Nathan's voice and was relieved to hear that there was no underlying tone of accusation, threat or disappointment. It was simply a plea from someone who cares about him to just get his act together.

He turned around to face Nathan who he hadn't realised was now only three feet away from his face. 'How _exactly _would you tell them?'

Nathan didn't answer, instead took the cigarette lightly from his grasp and inhaled a long, deep breath of the drug. Lucas raised his eyebrows in confusion and shock, that wasn't something he had expected his half-brother to do.

Not long after however he began to splutter and choke, 'I never have liked them' he declared after he had recovered and stubbed the remains onto the ground.

'Me neither...'

'I figured' Nathan said in understanding, he could feel Lucas' barriers coming down by every second that went by. He was comfortable without the need-to-know being thrust towards him by each person who spoke to him. This was partly however because Nathan already knew... Lucas followed shortly, breaking the silence.

'Haley sent you down then?'

'Yep'

'You finished smoking now?'

'Yep'

Silence fell yet again, also as before broken by Lucas.

'Got another question?'

'Yep... but just one more,' Nathan held off the back and forth banter between them to get to the real point, 'we both know this isn't gonna keep quiet for much longer, so, when are you going to tell everyone?'

'I don't know'

'Well I'm gonna warn you now Luke, If you don't soon, I will' Lucas nodded, 'Peyton's already been through so much recently Lucas, Brooke is in total melt down and I haven't seen Haley this upset and stressed since Jamie's accident...' He shook his head 'and this is killing me too, I hate lying to Peyton, let alone my wife and I can't even begin to imagine what Brooke is going to be like when she finds out I knew the whole time.'

'I know...'

'Anything more you need me for?'

'Put these in the bin before I get another one out' he said as he passed over the unfinished box of cigarettes and lighter.

'Sure' he said beginning to walk off.

'Thanks Nate' Lucas called after him.

'No problem'

----

Not wanting to bump into Haley and Brooke he walked around the back of the hospital, deciding to clear his head by walking up some of the floors by stairs.

Haley caught a glimpse of him sneaking round the corner to begin his ascend up the stairs but mentioned nothing of it as Brooke explained. They sat in a quiet corner of the lobby and once Brooke had calmed down, her raged breathing finding an almost normal pace, she recounted all that had happened between herself an Lucas.

Haley had – as to the shame she felt for having done so – zoned out of the conversation basically as soon as she hit the seat. She only jerked back into the reality of the conversation by one thing Brooke mumbled out, more like she was saying it to herself.

'I slapped him...'

'Brooke... I mean really?' Haley sighed, why had everyone turned to violence?

'I didn't exactly – _think – _about doing it, he was just so damn frustrating, and frankly. Rude.'

Haley didn't reply. She knew this was hard on everyone and she didn't really blame Brooke for having slapped Lucas. He probably deserved it the way he was behaving.

'I'm gonna go up to see Peyton again, you coming?' Haley decided to change the subject, easing the tension.

Brooke nodded in reply and stood up, straightened out her clothes and walked her way towards the lift behind Haley.

They reached the twenty third floor before Nathan had, Haley presumed that to be because he was walking all the way up. Her crazy husband was doing exercise at a time like this. She was slightly annoyed as she had hoped to talk to him about how he had got on with Lucas but focused on cheering up Peyton for the time being.

'Hey you' Brooke spoke first as they entered Peyton's room. The blonde followed with a weak smile as she turned slowly and cautiously onto her back. 'Any better?'

'A bit,' she nodded. 'I can't have all the painkillers because of the baby so progress is gonna be slow. At least that's what the doctor said anyway.'

'About that...' Haley trailed off having spoken for the first time after entering the room.

'Hmm?' Peyton inquired.

'You're happy with it all... aren't you?' It filled Haley's body with warmth as the radiant Peyton smile that she had grown to know and love slowly crept across her friends face as she began to nod slowly.

'Yeah, yeah I am' she let out a contented sigh.

----

Just as Nathan had walked out of ear shot Lucas' phone began to ring. He took his phone out of the baggy jean pocket and looked at the caller ID, sighing in frustration at her name flashing back at him.

He answered with a cold greeting of 'what?' and waited for the explanation of the call to be answered.

'I don't care! I told you to leave me alone' his face fell considerably at the threat that she gave him 'you wouldn't dare...' even he could hear the inexplicably clear sound of fear in his voice. 'You're crazy! You can't!' the dial tone rung through his ears and he snapped the phone shut, replacing it in the pocket it had come from, running his fingers through his hair and following his hand to drag down his face.

The realisation of urgency took over him as he clumsily put one foot in front of the other in an unsteady rhythm. Cornering the entrance to the hospital sharply he knocked into another man and heard a curse being thrown back at him; he couldn't care less in that moment. Reaching the lift he began to slam his finger against the up arrow as he watched the numbers slowly count down to the ground floor.

Finally reaching him he ran in and immediately pushed the button for the doors to close and as they shut he heard angry voices coming from behind them, they were so distant to him that they seemed a mile away. Pushing the number 23 he stood in front of the doors and willed the lift to move faster, not stop and open to the floor he so badly needed to get to.

Unfortunately in inevitably did stop, yet only twice, allowing multiple people to join him, pushing him further and further towards the back, blocking him in. When his floor did arrive he pushed brutally through the crowd calling back no apologies. He was about to run out when Nathan ran past him, knocking their shoulders. He looked extremely panicked and left the lift, grabbing onto Lucas' shoulders tightly.

'She's here, I came up and she was right ou-out-side the do-oor' Nathan stuttered as his breathing was raged 'I didn't recognise her at first when she walked in, I called out to her to ask who she was and she turned around, waved, then walked in'

'Wait! She's in there now?!'

'I was just coming to get you-' before Nathan had finished, Lucas had run up to Peyton's room and burst in to see three bewildered women staring at Teresa in front of them.

'What? I mean... Lucas?' Peyton's voice was trembling uncontrollably and he fell beside her, grasping her hand as he felt his insides self destruct.

'I ca-an explain...' the tears were already rolling down his cheeks as well. Nathan walked into the room cautiously and caught the look of despair being shot back at him from Haley and Brooke. They knew. They all knew.

**Thank you to all who have reviewed on my stories but to be honest, they have been going down. I really don't want to sound like I'm begging for reviews but if you are reading this story, then just a sentence to say that you're reading my story and... enjoying it? Would be grea****t :)**

**Oh, and let me know who you think the mystery woman is and what she has on Lucas... :D**


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